Primary Music Festival
The Birchwood Music department and Bishop’s Stortford Music School, were very pleased to welcome over 30 musicians from All Saints, St Michaels, Manor Fields and Thorley Hill primary school’s for our annual primary school orchestra workshop. The students worked tirelessly alongside our Birchwood Orchestra to produce two pieces, “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Rock.com”, which were performed to parents at the end of the event. We’d like to thank all that were involved and particularly Peter Foster from Herts Music Service for helping organise such a fun event.
Carols by Candlelight
Birchwood music students got into the festive spirit with our annual Carols by Candlelight which took place at St Michael's Church in Bishop's Stortford on Thursday 15 December.
A wonderful time was had by all!
Autumn Concert
Well done to all the students who performed in the recent Autumn Concert.
Wonderful performances all round!
Frantic Drama Workshop
Year 10 Drama students took part in a Frantic Assembly workshop today where they were put through their paces, learning a number of physical skills to assist in their upcoming devising exam. The students worked in pairs to create movement that involved connecting one hand and allowing your partner to guide you around the space. They then devised a sequence using round, by, shift and this was workshopped in to developing a story and potential relationships. Students were focused and pushed completely out of their comfort zones and I was so impressed with how they engaged with the tasks. I cant wait to see the impact this has on the physical aspects of their devised work next term.
Hot House Dance
Today two practitioners, Kate and ‘Damo’, came in from Hot House Dance and taught a workshop to year 8, 9, and 10 dance students as part of enrichment week. The students took part in a difficult cardio warmup and various technique-based exercises focused on training and strengthening them in order to benefit their movement skills and performance. This included performing tendu, swings, and contractions to benefit them in later classes. As well as this, the young dancers also learnt a challenging contemporary routine to ‘Louder Than Words’ from ‘tick, tick... BOOM!’ in which they performed to their peers at the end of the session. All students were focused and produced an amazing performance, proving how talented the dancers at Birchwood are.
The two teachers from the organisation Hot House, Kate and Damon, focus on the positive powers of dance and the creative processes to improve every individual. They both expressed how much they enjoy teaching classes at Birchwood and specified how great and engaged the dance students were.
Birchwood’s Young Musician 2022 Final
On Thursday 24 February Birchwood’s Young Musician 2022 Final was held in the school hall. The competition final, which is in its eighth year, was judged by Mr Peter Foster who is head of Bishop’s Stortford Music School. It was a wonderful evening of music and the performances were outstanding. The range of talent on display was inspiring and the final included solo performances on clarinet, flute, piano, saxophone, voice, cello, heavy metal guitar and drum kit. We would like to thank all students who entered the competition, the quality of entries made deciding on the overall finalists exceedingly difficult, and many thanks to Peter Foster for judging the final and Mr Stock for accompanying.
Young Musician of the Year 2022
Birchwood’s Young Musician of the Year 2022
Are you Birchwood’s next Pop or Classical winner?
How to Enter:
All you need to do is email a video recording of you performing your favourite piece in a communal space, e.g. your living room,
to Mr Grogan, mgrogan@birchwoodhigh.org.uk.
All styles and genres of music are welcome.
Closing date for entries is:
Wednesday 9 February and finalists will be announced on Friday 11 February.
Artist Darcy Turner runs a workshop for Year 10
On Wednesday 23 June, Year 10 art students enjoyed an amazing new sculpture experience. The artist and inventor Darcy Turner delivered a whole day workshop exploring his Stixx machine sculpture techniques. The students had to respond to their current coursework theme of Layers and produce a 3D sculpture.
Virtual Young Musician Competition 2021
Mr Grogan and Mr Stock would like to congratulate the following students for taking part in our Virtual Young Musician Competition 2021. The overall winners were Emily Robson and
Jorja O’Grady, with runners up Isabelle Ramsay (Voice) and Jessica Newton (Piano). The standard of musicianship was outstanding, and they had a really difficult time deciding on winners. The winners and runners up will be performing in our Summer Prom Concert on Friday 9 July on the Piazza.
Art tiger
The art being produced during lockdown has been amazing!
Keep drawing, dancing, painting, performing and singing. Remember all expressive and performing arts is good for your health and wellbeing.